Falcons wide receiver Roddy White wanted to make one thing clear.
“I’m here for one thing and that’s to win,” said White in a phone interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.
He was upset with a report on ESPN.com that painted him as being disgruntled with his low production this season in the new offensive scheme.
“This is nothing to get mad over,” White said. “I can’t control no plays that are being called in the huddle. All I can do is run the routes I’m supposed to run on the play and do my job. That’s all I can do.”
White had his streak of 130 games with a catch in games that he played in stopped against the Giants. He didn’t catch a pass against the Cowboys. He caught two for eight yards against he Texans.
He had four catches for 84 yards in the season opener.
White is the Falcons all-time leading receiver in yards, catches and touchdowns.
Leonard Hankerson has been the Falcons second most targeted wide receiver. He’s been running along side Julio Jones on some routes.
“That’s the progression,” White said. “I have to deal with that as is. I can’t get mad and get frustrated or anything like that. It is, what it is.”
White remains hopeful that he’ll have a bigger role in the offense.
“I know that I’m going to get my chances because of how people are going to play us,” White said. “(Doubling Julio is) the only chance that people have in playing us. I’m going to get the ball. I’m not really concerned.”
Over his stellar career, White has never complained about blocking in the run game. But he does want to get some more action.
“I know that’s what they want me to do, go out there and be physical in the run game and block,” White said. “I have to go out there and do my job. I want to do my job because I want (Devonta) Freeman to get off. That’s only going to help us at the end of the day. No matter what goes on, if I don’t go out there and block then my guy makes the tackle and 15 yards instead of him going for 50 yards for a touchdown, then that’s on me. That would be stupid for me not to want all of my teammates to do well.”
White said the morale of the team is up and they are looking ahead to what appears to be a weak schedule.
“This is the NFL,” White said. “We are one turnover here or one turnover there from being beaten. At the end of the day, I don’t even think about that. I just think about us being consistency, holding on to the ball and trying to find ways to win.”
White believes the Falcons can soar this year, in part because of the play of the offensive line.
“I feel like we played a team that could really pass rush last week and our offensive line played lights out against those guys,” White said. “We held up good against those guys and the things they were trying to do. I was happy about that because in the past we’ve always had problems with the (offensive) line.”
White plans to be ready when the ball starts coming his way again.
“Right now, we are rocking and rolling,” White said. “We just have to keep being consistent.”
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